Identification of the lipid droplet-associated protein adipophilin as a novel liver x receptor target gene

Abstract

Liver X receptors are nuclear receptors that regulate cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism. Despite the critical role fatty acids play in energy metabolism, the information is scarce regarding molecular processes governing their deposition and recovery from lipid droplets (LDs). Adipophilin/Adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP) is a prominent lipid droplet-associated protein (LDAP) and is postulated to be necessary for formation and cellular function of LD structures.

The present study was undertaken to reveal the gene regulation of adipophilin. This work shows that LXRá binds an identified LXR response element (LXRE) in the human adipophilin promoter. It also demonstrates adipophilin responsiveness upon LXR activation in transfection reporter assays.

Our data indicates that adipophilin is a novel and functional LXR target gene. This is the first report to demonstrate that a member of the lipid droplet-associated protein family is regulated by LXR and bring further evidence to LXRs interplay in cholesterol and lipid metabolism.